Kushner, Harvey, HBO: Your Thursday Evening Briefing

The damage to the guided-missile destroyer, above, is so extensive that Navy and Marine Corps divers are using hydraulic cutters to try to enter crushed and flooded berthing compartments where some remains have been located.

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Reuters

3. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, met with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and separately with Mahmoud Abbas, above, the president of the Palestinian Authority, on Mr. Kushner’s first solo Middle East trip.

The week also included a visit with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which was unexpectedly shadowed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s decision to cut or delay nearly $300 million in aid.

Elsewhere in the region, Qatar restored full relations with Iran, deepening a feud with its Gulf neighbors.

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Jim Wilson/The New York Times

4. Even after decades of affirmative action, black and Hispanic students are more underrepresented at the nation’s top colleges and universities than they were 35 years ago.

We analyzed data from 100 schools, from public flagship universities to the Ivy League, and found the share of black freshmen virtually unchanged since 1980.

The number of Hispanic students increased — but not enough to keep pace with the country’s growing Hispanic population. Above, the University of California, Berkeley.

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Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle, via Associated Press

5. Hurricane Harvey is headed to coastal Texas, where it’s expected to cause major flooding.

Gov. Greg Abbott pre-emptively declared a state of disaster for at least 30 counties and urged Texans to prepare. Parts of Louisiana and the lower Mississippi Valley were also in the path of hurricane conditions.

We’ll be following the storm closely. You can set your iPhone or Android device for breaking news alerts, or sign up here to get them by email. Our site will have the latest. Above, a roadway in Houston.

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Nick Oxford for The New York Times

6. Syphilis can lead to blindness, paralysis and dementia, and it’s on the rise around the country as people who fall victim to the heroin and methamphetamine epidemics trade sex for drugs.

Our reporter went to Oklahoma City to see how the city is handling an intense syphilis outbreak. Health investigators like the one above are driving around, knocking on doors in dilapidated homes and motels, and interviewing prison inmates to find all the sex partners of infected people. The disease can be cured with an injection.

“Syphilis doesn’t sleep for anyone,” one cautioned.

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Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

7. There’s a big riftin scouting.

The president of the Girl Scouts has accused the Boy Scouts of America of trying to undercut her organization with a “covert campaign to recruit girls.”

Both groups have millions of participants, but are facing declining membership, so the Boy Scouts’ consideration of expanding programming for girls appears to the Girl Scouts like an existential threat.

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Erik Madigan Heck for The New York Times

8. For Roger Federer fans — that’s pretty much anyone who has ever seen him hit a ball — 2017 may feel like a fairy tale.

At 36, he’s in the midst of a late-career resurgence, rare for any sport. He could win his third major of the year at the U.S. Open, and fans are hoping for a face-off with his archrival, Rafael Nadal.

Our magazine writer spoke to Federer between practice sessions and concluded, “His effortless grace makes it easy to forget that he has suffered his share of heartbreaking defeats.”

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John Locher/Associated Press

9. The much-hyped boxing match set for Saturday night in Las Vegas between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, above from left, is a bonanza for its promoters, bettors and the state of Nevada, with over $60 million in tickets sold.

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But the Association of Ringside Physicians has come out against the match, which would set McGregor, in his first professional boxing match, against the reigning champion.

“The thing I really fear, truly fear, is that somebody’s going to get really hurt,” said the group’s head.

And in a piece about racism in popular culture, our critic wrote about the “deplorable” racial taunting during the promotional tour for the fight.

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Paul Schiraldi/HBO

10. Finally, HBO thinks it may have the hit it needs to replace “Game of Thrones.”

“The Deuce” — by David Simon, creator of “The Wire,” and the novelist George Pelecanos — recreates Times Square in the ’70s, when it was a seedy area dominated by peep shows and massage parlors. It will make its debut on Sept. 10 with a cast including Pernell Walker, James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, above from left.

Our writer spoke to them about the challenges of telling the story without slipping into flat-out pornography.

Have a great night.

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